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Gun Debate at the O.K. Corral (Or Somewhere)

By Francis X. Clines January 19, 2016 1:00 pmJanuary 19, 2016 1:00 pm

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Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

“The American people know a liar when they see one,” declared Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association, calling out President Obama for a one-on-one television debate on gun controls in a macho direct-address video that sounded more like a challenge to a duel. “Let’s see if you’re game for a fair debate,” said Mr. LaPierre. “It’s your chance to show the American people you’re not afraid to meet the NRA on neutral ground.”

So far the White House has not agreed to slap leather or syntax with Mr. LaPierre, particularly since he declined the chance to join the president on a CNN town hall broadcast about gun safety earlier this month. “You think they’d be prepared to have a debate with the president,” Mr. Obama commented, possibly prompting Mr. LaPierre’s subsequent counter-challenge. The N.R.A. dismissed the CNN show as “a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House.”

A debate could be intriguing, however unlikely, especially if it raised the heated issue of closing loopholes in the law requiring background checks for gun buyers. The public might be surprised to learn that Mr. LaPierre and his gun lobby used to support tighter background checks, the goal championed by Mr. Obama but virulently opposed now by the N.R.A.

“We think it’s reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show,” Mr. LaPierre testified at a House hearing in 1999, a month after the Columbine high school shooting massacre that took 13 lives. “No loopholes anywhere for anyone,” he said. Since then, the N.R.A. has hardened its position even as high-powered gun sprees have become a repeated occurrence across the nation.

There’s little expectation of going mano-a-mano, but Mr. LaPierre’s tone provided a reminder that time is running out on what has been a remarkable run of unapologetic, even gleeful, bursts of disrespect aimed personally at President Obama. It began with the “You lie!” outcry of Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina during an Obama address to Congress in 2009. The incivility continued with Republicans variously vowing to limit Mr. Obama to a single term (Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader), poking a finger of disapproval at him in a tarmac photo-op (Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona), and demeaning his patriotism: “I do not believe that the president loves America” (Rudy Giuliani).

Few Republicans match the contumely of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who as state attorney general sued 31 times in opposition to Mr. Obama’s policies. As governor, Mr. Abbott enthusiastically enacted the state’s new law allowing the flaunting of holstered handguns in public. He was rhetorically locked and loaded for Mr. Obama’s calls this month for modest improvements in gun safety. “Obama wants to impose more gun control,” the governor tweeted. “My response? COME AND TAKE IT.”